Practising Weathering: Bringing All Together

In the past few posts, I showed how I weathered the tank locomotive BR 74 854 and Roco flex track. Now, I will explain how I bring them together.

Building the Exhibition Plinth

The 30cm flex track serves to hold any rolling stock for static display purposes. This track rests on top of a 2.2mm foam (32 x 4cm). I made the foam wider so that the ballast can flow over to the sides. Once I glued the track in the centre of the foam, I airbrushed around with Vallejo Deck Tan and Neutral Gray to give it a concrete look. I also airbrushed the sides of the foam too.

I applied H0 0,5 basalt ballast from Gleisschotterschmiede. I carefully brushed off excess ballast on the track as well as on the sides and shaped the sides so that they create a gentle slope. I wet the ballast with thinner to break the surface tension when applying a mixture of wood glue and water with a bit of dishwashing liquid. The glue mixture will unfortunately turn the ballast black, something that I could not avoid. I have ballast from other manufacturers and that gave the same results. Since I am going to airbrush the whole piece, I left it be.

Testing on Loewenherz Module

This exhibition plinth will be placed on Module 1a. I left some space at the edge so that I could put some visitor figures admiring the side of the rolling stock.

Weathering the Plinth

I applied a light brown on the sleepers to bring out some fine details and to stimulate how the wooden sleepers age by elements (Loewenherz is an open-space park). You will notice that the ballast is now grayish. I applied a mixture of Vallejo Deck Tan, Aluminium, Neutral Gray and airbrushed sparingly on the ballast around the track as well as between the sleepers.

Before spraying the rails, I used masking tape to protect the sleepers and ballast. A mixture of Vallejo Rust and Hull Red was applied all over the rails. As this is an exhibition track, the rail heads are not shiny. Thus, I left the acrylic paint as is. After removing the tape and letting the paint dry for 10 minutes, I applied AK Interactive Washes grime and rust on the sleepers and the rail plates respectively. I also dry-brushed Vallejo Deck Tan on some sleepers to show how the parts that receive more sunshine get more drying exposure and less leaks from the undercarriage.